A. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to paint machines. In particular this invention relates to automatic painting of objects having a cylindrical contour. More in particular, this invention relates to an automatic painting machine for painting delineated color zones on the surface of a cylindrical object and then removing the object from the painting machine subsequent to the painting operation.
B. Prior Art
Painting machines for automatically painting objects are well known in the art. However, in some of these prior painting systems, the object to be painted was manually sprayed with paint. Such prior systems did not permit the object to be painted with sharp color delineated zones. Thus, in such prior systems, a number of coatings were necessarily applied to achieve various color zones. This had the effect of increasing the cost of the painting operation.
In other prior systems, the painting machine provided for the mounting of the object on the system. However, in some prior systems, the paint machine was not adjustable to allow for different sized objects to be painted. Thus, such prior systems did not provide for versatility in accepting differently sized objects for painting and reduced the painting capability of such prior systems.
In other prior painting systems, shield members have been used in order to block paint from a particular zonal area of the object being painted. However, in such prior systems, the paint shields were not adjustable in a particular direction to allow for different widths of colored zones on the object to be painted. This had the effect of reducing the overall capability of such systems in painting objects where varying color zone widths were needed.
In still other prior systems, the object after having been painted was removed manually. In such prior systems, no mechanism was provided for automatic ejection of the object subsequent to the painting operation. Thus, there was a loss in operating time for the system when the object had to be removed and a new object inserted into such prior painting systems.
In other prior paint systems, the main operating components were in the path of paint being sprayed on the objects to be painted. This caused excessive system nonoperation time when such components had to be cleaned after paint fouling. In such prior systems, the lack of shielding from the paint being sprayed increased the cost of the overall painting operation.